This is a measure of ambulatory care emergency department (ED) visits. Ambulatory care is medical care provided on an out-patient basis, meaning there isn't the need for a prolonged stay, or admission, to the medical facility. For this measure, we count each visit to an ED that does not result in an inpatient encounter once, regardless of the intensity or duration of the visit. We count multiple visits to the ED on the same date of service as one visit. This measure does not include mental health or chemical dependency services.

A lower rate is generally better for this measure as an indication that the EDs are being used appropriately for emergency care.

This rate is reported as the number of visits per 1000 member months. This measure can be broken down by many different age groups, but the rate reported here is the rate for all age groups combined.